SULAIR Human Resources

Nonexempt Travel Guidelines

Overtime issues for Non-Exempt employees who travel for Stanford University:

Travel —If Stanford requests that an employee travel, the travel time counts as work whenever the travel occurs. If it is at the request of the department, the travel time is counted. It is not necessary to do work while on the plane or train to have that time count as work. The exception would be any unpaid meal break: if the employee has a 10 hour day, i.e., meeting in Chicago all day and then flying home after 5—one hour of flight time should be deducted as the dinner hour and not counted as work time.
Travel to/from airport or other transportation center —if the time to get to the airport exceeds that employee’s normal commute time, the amount of time greater than the normal commute time should be counted as work time. So, if it takes an employee 15 minutes to get from home to Stanford, anything beyond that to the airport should be counted as work time.
The 8 hour day —It can start and end at different times on different days, i.e., 7-4 one day, 9-6 another, etc. Any time over 8 hours/day is overtime. Any time more than 8 hours and up to 12 hours (including 12 th hour) is paid at 1-1.5 time rate. Any time more than 12 hours is paid at 2 time rate.
Meals —if the employee is required to appear at meals or receptions, those are considered part of the work day.
Unpaid time —If there are periods of time at the beginning or end of a work trip, or during one, where the employee has freedom about how to spend his or her time(such as sleeping in or being a tourist) then that time is unpaid. For instance, if an employee arrives a day early or stays a day late in order to take advantage of the cheaper air fares, then the day of leisure in unpaid.
Hours in week --Week is 40 hours at full time. Any time beyond 40 hours of straight time or over 8 hours each day is overtime.
Determining the week —If 7 days are worked in one week, on the 7 th day any hours over 8 hours are paid at 2 times normal rate. The Stanford work week begins on Monday at 12:01 a.m. and runs through Sunday at midnight.

Last modified: January 5, 2007